BlackRock

Blackrock is "far and away the largest money manager on the planet," a distinction it earned in December 2009 following the finalization of a $13.5 billion acquisition of Barclays Global Investors. Blackrock CEO Larry Fink "watches funds equal to a little less than four times the current U.S. budget." Additionally, According to Vanity Fair: "A global colossus—with $3.3 trillion in assets under its direct management and another $9 trillion it supports—BlackRock manages about $1 trillion of pension and retirement funds for millions of Americans and oversees the investments of scores of institutions around the world: from state and local governments to college endowments, from Fortune 500 companies to the sovereign-wealth funds of, among others, Abu Dhabi and Singapore." At the time of the Deepwater Horizon blowout, Blackrock was the single largest shareholder of BP.

BlackRock and its CEO, Fink, both gained from the 2008 financial crisis and the bailouts that followed. Vanity Fair continues, saying: "Today, through an array of government contracts, BlackRock has effectively become the leading manager of Washington’s bailout of Wall Street." Blackrock oversees $130 billion in toxic assets for the U.S. government (assets the U.S. government "took on" in the Bear Stearns sale and the A.I.G. rescue). Additionally, BlackRock provides services to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the New York Fed.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Deepwater Horizon
 * BP
 * Larry Fink

External articles

 * Graydon Carter, "Wild on the Street", Vanity Fair, April 2010.
 * Suzanna Andrews, "Larry Fink’s $12 Trillion Shadow", Vanity Fair, April 2010